When a monk was traveling on the road, he met an old woman, and asked:
-I would like to know which way that leads to Chao-chou, would you please give me the direction?
The old waman replied:
-Just go straight, don't make any...
continue...

"Those who have fulfilled the ten stages of bodhisattva practice are no better than hired field hands; those who have attained the enlightenment of the fifty-first and fifty-second stages are prisoners shackled and bound; arhats and pratyekabuddhas are so much filth in the latrine; bodhi and nirvana are hitching posts for donkeys."

-Lin Chi

Before the controversy over my handling of what I considered to be a beautiful post by "sister" I had posted this treasure of the Way. By the way, why didn't someone else offer her a guiding post if they felt she needed help? I honestly thought she could be giving an answer to my question. Anyone want to tackle this quote of Lin-Chi?

"Those who have fulfilled the ten stages of bodhisattva practice are no better than hired field hands; those who have attained the enlightenment of the fifty-first and fifty-second stages are prisoners shackled and bound; arhats and pratyekabuddhas are so much filth in the latrine; bodhi and nirvana are hitching posts for donkeys."

-Lin Chi

What Lin Chi is getting at, is that the stages and titles, are nothing but names and attachments. Even nirvana and Bohdi are attachments. If one says he has attained nirvana or bohdi, then that person is attached to nirvana or bodhi.

So what Lin Chi is doing, is asking Who are you? Are you someone attached to names.

The act of achievement is no act at all. You are born with a Buddha nature. What happens to that nature “ten stages of bodhisattva practice or becoming a hired field hand” is the karma of the soul. The production of a garden, however, is a thing to be proud of. MU